Syracuse, N.Y. – Fourth-year medical students at Upstate Medical University cried, hugged, whooped with joy and toasted each other with champagne today after learning where they will do their graduate medical training known as a residency.

At noon 145 Upstate students learned their fates when they opened acceptance letters handed out in an auditorium packed with family, friends and faculty on the 9th floor of Weiskotten Hall.

They received their residency assignments at the same time as 16,245 other U.S. medical school seniors across the country in a carefully choreographed annual event known as Match Day. The National Residency Matching Program uses a computer program to match the choices of applicants with the preferences of residency program directors to fill training positions available at U.S. teaching hospitals. Residencies can last anywhere from three to nine years depending on the medical specialty.

“Today is the best day of my life,” said student Kate Hinchcliff of Ithaca, who was offered a plastic surgery residency at the University of California Davis.

She and other students said the process of applying and interviewing for residencies is stressful, time consuming and expensive. Hinchcliff applied to 60 programs. Although UCDavis was not her top choice, it was among her top five.

Hinchcliff compared the match process to killing a horse. “You should shoot it and get it over with, but this is like killing it with a shovel. It’s awful. It’s very long and drawn out,” she said. “The last six months have been very anxious.”

Of the Upstate medical school seniors who will graduate in May, 72 are entering primary care specialties such as internal medicine, pediatrics, family medicine, medicine and obstetrics and gynecology. Sixty-two students will remain in New York state. Of those, 19 will train at Upstate and six at St. Joseph’s Hospital Health Center.

“It’s a big day for people,” said Dr. David Duggan, the medical school’s interim dean. “It determines their lives.”

The medical school was placed on probation last year by an accrediting organization because of concerns over how the school is run, its curriculum and other issues.

Duggan said he expects that organization, the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, to take Upstate off probation in June. For more than a year the school has been working to make changes to address the LCME’s concerns.

LCME representatives visited Upstate earlier this week to gather information. They met with more than 100 students, faculty and staff. The LCME is expected to decide in June whether to lift Upstate’s probationary status.

Duggan said the LCME team that visited this week shared their findings with Upstate officials before they left. He said their feedback was very encouraging.

“I think we have addressed their concerns and put in place a system to ensure we remain in compliance and continue to improve,” Duggan said.